‘Government shielding those who slaughtered a cow’

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sangeet Som accused Uttar Pradesh’s Samajwadi Party government of attempting to placate minorities and framing innocent people for the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq, after rumours last week that his family had killed a calf and eaten beef. Som said the government was biased and shielding those who “slaughtered a cow”. Even as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the incident should not be made a communal issue or be politicised, Som said the UP government was “trying to appease a particular community”. UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav met Akhlaq's family on Sunday, promising to help them and raising the compensation amount for a third time, to Rs 30 lakhs.

Black money crackdown to continue

The Bharatiya Janata Party government continued its drive against black money, with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announcing stringent action against people who had not revealed their assets in the three-month compliance window. He said anyone who had evaded disclosures was now at risk of being targeted by tax authorities, while those who had come clean could “sleep well”. Jaitley said the government was also planning to make it compulsory to provide a PAN card when making purchases with large amounts of cash, as the bulk of the nation's black money is actually parked within India, not abroad.

Indrani Mukerjea out of danger

Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, is out of danger and has regained consciousness, doctors at Mumbai's JJ hospital said on Sunday. Mukerjea had been admitted there on Friday after a suspected drug overdose, and had been in critical condition for two days. The dean of the hospital said that doctors would monitor her condition for the next day or two and consult a psychiatrist before they could consider discharging her. While the hospital and a forensic lab had provided conflicting reports on the overdose, the dean said they had accepted the forensic lab’s version, which found no drugs in her system.

Serious charges against Goa ex-CM, Alemao

Illegal transactions were conducted at the private and official residences of former Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat and former public works department minister Churchill Alemao, according to the Goa police’s chargesheet in the Louis Berger bribery case filed last week. The allegations include bags stuffed with cash, a shop used as a “front company” and clandestine meetings with employees of the firm that was part of a group of consultants appointed in 2009 to monitor the Rs 1,031-crore Japan International Cooperation Agency water supply and sewage project. While Kamat has been listed as a suspect on the chargesheet, Alemao has been named “Accused no.1”.

Two militants killed in Kashmir

Security forces killed two foreign militants of the Jaish-e-Muhammad in the Tral area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Sunday. Army officials said they had received intelligence that some militants were hiding in a village in Pulwama district, and launched a joint operation with the police to track them down. As the cordon closed in on the suspects, they allegedly opened heavy fire, which was followed by an intense exchange between the two sides, resulting in the death of two the of JeM men. An Indian soldier also sustained a gunshot wound, but was immediately evacuated and is in stable condition.